Also 7 quacke. [Abbrev. of QUACKSALVER.]
1. An ignorant pretender to medical or surgical skill; one who boasts to have a knowledge of wonderful remedies; an empiric or impostor in medicine. = CHARLATAN 2.
1659. T. Pecke, Parnassi Puerp., 145. Sir Quack his Patient told, nothing could cure The stubborn Feaver.
1683. Kennett, trans. Erasm. on Folly, 47. All these hard named fellows cannot make So great a figure as a single Quacke.
1722. De Foe, Plague (1754), 36. Running after Quacks and Mountebanks … for Medicines and Remedies.
1783. Crabbe, Village, I. A potent quack, long versed in human ills, Who first insults the victim whom he kills.
1809. W. Irving, Knickerb. (1861), 127. He who has once been under the hands of a quack, is for ever after prone to dabble in drugs.
1880. Beale, Slight Ailm., 22. Persons would be easily influenced by what the quack says.
2. transf. One who professes a knowledge or skill concerning subjects of which he is ignorant. = CHARLATAN 3.
1638. Ford, Fancies, III. i. There he sits … The very quack [eds. quaik, quake] of fashions.
1710. Steele, Tatler, No. 195, ¶ 2. Rules for knowing the Quacks in both Professions [Law and Physic].
1782. Cowper, Progr. Err., 474. Church quacks, with passions under no command, Who fill the world with doctrines contraband.
1864. Burton, Scot Abr., I. v. 249. There is scarcely an instance of a lord rector having been a clamorous quack or a canting fanatic.
3. attrib. and Comb., as quack-advertisement, -bill, -bookseller, -doctor, medicine, etc.; also quack-adoring, -ridden adjs.
1653. H. More, Antid. Ath., III. ix. § 2 (Schol.) Principles that no … pert Saucy Quack-Theologist can any way enervate.
1695. trans. Colbatch’s New Lt. Chirurg. put out, Title-p., The Base Imposture of his Quack Medicines.
a. 1794. T. Brown, Table Talk, in Coll. Poems (1705), 130. A Chymist … put out a Quack-Bill.
1707. Hearne, Collect. (O. H. S.), II. 65. Mr. Bolton … now a quack-Physitian in London.
1751. Warburton, Pope’s Wks., IV. 18. The bills of Quack-Doctors and Quack-Booksellers being usually pasted together on the same posts.
1785. Europ. Mag., VIII. Dec., 469/2. A dialogue between the doctor and his clerk satirizes quack advertisements and attestations.
1839. Carlyle, Chartism, v. 138. Europe lay pining,… quack-ridden, hag-ridden.
1855. Browning, Bp. Blougram’s Apol., 366. Quack-nonsense about crowns, And … The vague idea of setting things to rights.
1874. Helps, Soc. Press., ii. 26. The world has become a puffing, advertising, quack-adoring world.
